1908

Mar 4  The New York Board of Education bans whipping in public school.

Mar 8  Britain's House of Commons turns down a women's suffrage bill.

Mar 19  In Idaho, Albert Horsley is convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the murder of former governor Steunenberg in 1905. Horsley will become a Seventh-Day Adventist and his death sentence will be commuted to life in prison.

Jul 6  The Ottoman Empire has not been keeping up with Western Europe in education, technology and military might. Young Turks influenced by study abroad have formed an umbrella group called the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). With a significant portion of the army they overthrow the power of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, but they leave the sultan on his throne.

Aug 8  In the US, the Hoover Company acquires manufacturing rights to the upright portable vacuum cleaner just invented by James M. Spangler.

Sep 27  Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.

Oct 5  In a bloodless coup, soldiers in Bulgaria declare Bulgaria's independence from the Ottoman Empire. They turn power over to Prince Ferdinand, who becomes Tsar Ferdinand.

Oct 7  Responding to what appears to be a weakened Ottoman Empire, Russia's Prime Minister Stolypin has made a secret agreement with Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina – until now ruled by Austria-Hungary but nominally a part of the Ottoman Empire. Franz Joseph announces his intention of giving these territories autonomy and constitutional rule, and he announces their annexation.

Oct 7  Serbs have been looking forward to independence from foreign rule for all Serbs and a united Serbia. Serbia threatens Austria-Hungary with war. A secret organization in Serbia and students in Bosnia begin organizing resistance to Austrian rule, by violence if necessary.

Oct 7  Crete revolts against Ottoman rule and aligns with Greece.

Oct 8  Ordinary Russians side with their fellow Orthodox Christian Serbian brothers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, against their Austro-Hungarian Roman Catholic rulers. Russian pan-Slavists are especially annoyed. Russian cooperation with Austria-Hungary is ending. A Russian diplomat Izvolsky tells a Serbian minister, Vesnitch, "Hitherto we have always supported Serbia and we shall support her in the future, always and with all possible means."

Oct 28  Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II is supporting his ally Austria-Hungary but not in military action. He thinks of the Serbs as Asiatics and as part of the Asiatic threat to Western civilization. He is another ruler who owes his power to accident of birth. In an interview published in the London Daily Telegraph he says, "You English are mad, mad, mad as March hares." He states that "it is one of my dearest wishes to live on the best of terms with England." Britain's Foreign Secretary Edward Gray, meanwhile, is unhappy about the annexation, believing it has created too much volatility.

Nov 3  In the US another presidential election campaign ends. Technology is beginning to diminish the belief of many that presidential candidates are not supposed to appear as salesmen greedy for power. William Taft is elected president, defeating the Democrat, William Jennings Bryan.

Nov 7  Butch Cassidy (42) and the Sundance Kid (41?) die in a shoot out in Bolivia. It will be speculated that one of the two shot his fatally wounded partner to put him out of his misery and then killed himself.

Dec 2  Pu-yi, age 2, ascends the Manchu throne in China. Real power remains with the Empress Dowager Cixi. Pu-yi is to be China's last emperor.

Dec 26  Jack Johnson becomes the first black heavyweight boxing champion, defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.

to 1907 | to 1909

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